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Rachana Dixit writes "Something that is just beginning to be evaluated, though, is a greater effort to conserve water."

Local architect and developer Bill Atwood is building an 85,000-square-foot, mixed-use development on West Main Street. While infill development is something increasingly common within city limits, the 270,000-gallon rainwater catching device on top of Atwood’s building is something that Charlottesville has not seen a whole lot of.

Ã¢â?¬Å?Now we need to save the water and hide the water,” Atwood said.

Most of the water saved in Atwood’s project will be used to flush toilets, while some will also be used for landscaping and cooling purposes.(Daily Progress)

I believe that the use of graywater for non-potable use on a wider scale is the next major conservation savings. As we saw with low flush toilets, these trends can catch on very quickly once established.

This is another reason to re-visit the assumptions that were made by the RWSA consultants for our projected 50 year water supply. The 2004 Gannett Fleming demand report only uses data through 2001, starting in 2002 demand started declining, following implementation of a number of conservation measures. The 2004 report treats the decline in water usage from years 2002-2004 as an anomaly, even though six years after the drought the trend toward less water usage has continued. Greg Harper, the County Water Resource Manager has addressed this in his paper "Are we overestimating our future water needs-an updated inquiry into data and assumptions-"which can be found in this article:

His ideas and others need to be carefully evaluated before launching into a more than $200 million dollar new water infrastructure system, instead of first looking at conservation and efficiency measures that could be adopted. Then we can plan for a sustainable way to increase our water supply that can take into account the trend toward less water consumption now and in the future and be phased in gradually so as not to be a financial burden for the rate-payers who will foot the bill.